"It's terribly warm. We shared what little coffee we had with the wounded. I brought back a corporal today who had a bullet in his left lung. The first aid station is overflowing.
"We are in action at 4 p.m. again today because the first battalion cannot advance any more. The enemy has suddenly surged around our flanks and rear. Our divisions on the right and left have not followed! We risk the danger of being encircled and smashed!
"Bullets are pouring down from the trees. We are holding on only with great difficulty. After long defences and many losses we received reinforcements later today. We withdrew around 9 p.m. and a relief party buried the dead.
"En route back I met a man who had a bullet in his head. Further on we came to a forest where we slept and watched in relays. It was impossible to sleep.
"It is a terribly cold night and the machine guns are firing incessantly. The enemy is infiltrating ceaselessly, trying to reach our positions. Bullets are whistling about us forever.
"Another Black Day"
"May 24: Another black day has begun. At 4 am. we had our first food since the day before yesterday. How good this little bit of rice soup and black bread taste. It's extraor-dirianly calm. We are apparently too weak to attack, Sergeant—lost his right leg. H—was wounded in the abdomen. B.LS. died. The captain and a lieutenant and many others are wounded. The blood of our soldiers is bathing 'Dead Man Hill'.
"The wood is only seven kilometres long and we have taken half. What's going to happen today?
"At 7 am. two strong detachments went forward to determine the enemy's principal positions. It seems there are three divisions facing us.
"Alarm at 8 am. Tanks are coming! Heavy enemy units are already approaching our positions and firing all their guns at us..."
A French tank attack was the lest notation in the young soldier's jary. The author was presumably killed in this attack.
Names of places and German military units have been eliminated from the above transcript at the request of the French authorities, who showed foreign correspondents the original diary and all principal extracis—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.